Ben Simmons says James Harden one of the best defenders in the NBA

I like that he was advocating for Harden here but it's weird that he thinks origin of the criticism of Harden's defense is analytics. The analytics show he is a + defender. It's people watching but not understanding things and then proceeding to tweet their ignorance (or in some cases talk about it on sports shows) that is the root of this misconception.

 

Yeah it's the exact opposite. I think most advanced stats says Harden is at least an above average defender, if you cherry pick stats it would even show he's a great defender.

Criticism of Harden's defense has always been based on eye tests. To be fair, he does do some derpy things on defense, or just stop playing with effort when he's sulking.

I think Harden has a great understanding of defense, he's very good at anticipating opponent's moves. That's why he gets a lot of random steals even though he has below average quickness.

 

Bill Simmons wishes he knew as much basketball as Ben Simmons.

And Ben is a pup.

Bill likes to talk shyte about a sport he probably never played or if he did play on any level at all, did not play well.

 

The no defense narrative is eye test based on old data. Harden may not have played much defense when he first came to Houston but he has been proving that he is elite in multiple areas of defense the last 4 years, the data supports this production (or recent eye test).

It is only the ignorant and the agenda driven that continue to spew this baseless vomitus.

 

https://fadeawayworld.net/2020/03/2...-understand-how-strong-that-dude-is-hes-a-st/

Ben obviously saying Harden NOT a bad defender.

The insinuation is not that Harden is an average defender. Funny how quickly CF believes Ben does not know what he is talking about because Ben states that the analytics do not support his true value on defense.

Ben believes Harden to be an underrated defender, even better than what the analytics say he is.